Chris Higgins
Documentaries I Like: Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides – It’s A Rock-You-Mentary
by Chris Higgins - December 10, 2009 - 4:55 PM

Documentaries I Like

Wesley Willis drawing - Dan Ryan Expressway

So yesterday I posted The Late Movies: Rock On, Wesley Willis, featuring some of Wesley Willis’s bizarre-but-awesome music. But the real treat comes today, when you can watch an entire documentary about Wesley Willis online — this week only. (Later, you’ll have to buy the DVD.) The new documentary is called Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides, and I think you should watch it.

Surprise: Wesley Willis was a skilled visual artist. His drawings, featured in this film, have a powerful architectural style, generally showing Chicago cityscapes, McDonald’s, the Dan Ryan Expressway, and other visions of Willis’s life. “I draw buses, trucks, cars, and buildings,” says Willis in one voiceover. His knowledge of perspective is fantastic. His drawing implement of choice? A blue ball-point pen. Why? “Because architects make blueprints.”

In Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides, we learn where Willis came from, in the words of his siblings, his father, his musical and artistic colleagues, and Willis himself — he participated in the making of the documentary in the years up until his death in 2003. We learn about his childhood, his visual art, his music, and generally just the human side of an artist who was hard to figure out. There are plenty of surprises here (for example, Willis on MTV being interviewed by Tabitha Soren). Watch the film below (click the “more” link and the video will load and start playing automatically) this week only (courtesy of Pitchfork), or just watch it at Pitchfork. You can also buy the DVD. Note: there is some spicy language in this film, but not much. I mean, it’s the south side of Chicago, there’s gonna be a few f-bombs dropped.

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (8)

  1. This looks really good – I’m planning on watching it tonight. Reminds me a lot of “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” which is also a must-see for anyone who hasn’t.

    posted by Aaron on 12-10-2009 at 5:46 pm

  2. I have been a fan of Wesley Willis for so so long! My favorite song is “I Whupped Batman’s A**” From my understanding, he had a lot to overcome in his life including mental illness. All that aside though, he’s AWESOME!

    posted by Kelly on 12-10-2009 at 6:25 pm

  3. I can’t wait to watch this tonight. Thanks for posting the link.

    @Aaron – I was obssessed with “The Devil and Daniel Johnston.” It so engrossing and interesting. I agree that it’s a must see. Having visited and lived in Austin for so long, I spent quite a bit of time going to Soundwave (RIP best record store ever) and buying his tapes and seeing his artwork for sale. I will never eat in the sushi restaurant that has taken its place.

    posted by nikki on 12-11-2009 at 9:48 am

  4. The thing I find so fascinating about Wesley is the way he used music essentially as a drug. Music was the thing that kept him stable and quieted the voices in his head. If you’re going to self-medicate, what a great way to do it!

    posted by Bert on 12-11-2009 at 10:51 am

  5. Am I the only that is watching Superchunk: Quest for Sleep instead?

    posted by Russ on 12-11-2009 at 12:22 pm

  6. Russ, I’m having the same problem.

    posted by Andy on 12-11-2009 at 4:41 pm

  7. I concur. Maybe the link died.

    posted by David on 12-11-2009 at 10:56 pm

  8. Now it’s Lifter Puller (no slouches, but not Wesley…).

    posted by PJ on 12-21-2009 at 6:52 pm

Comment

commenting policy